


spin the bottle but with some liberties taken

by akanesgf



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: (the title is a lie spin the bottle is only in the beginning), Camping, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Modern Thedas, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 05:57:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11307132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akanesgf/pseuds/akanesgf
Summary: “Oh come on Alistair,” Morrigan drawls from the back of the truck, “surely you aren’t backing out now?” Alistair would shoot her his usual glare but she wouldn’t see it anyways.“I don’t know if you’re really in any position to criticise Morrigan. You aren’t even playing.” Leliana responds easily, not taking her gaze off of Alistair while she says it. He squirms.





	spin the bottle but with some liberties taken

**Author's Note:**

> quick note: alexis (tabris) is dating leliana and morrigan as well but since it's only referenced so i didn't think it was necessary to tag. also, alistair and zevran only just started dating each other.

“Oh come on Alistair,” Morrigan drawls from the back of the truck, “surely you aren’t backing out now?” Alistair would shoot her his usual glare but she wouldn’t see it anyways.  
  
“I don’t know if you’re really in any position to criticise Morrigan. You aren’t even playing.” Leliana responds easily, not taking her gaze off of Alistair while she says it. He squirms.  
  
“Hm. Put Alistair back in his kennel and I’ll consider playing.” Morrigan quips without missing a beat, but Alistair can tell that Leliana struck a nerve. He’d be more interested in her slipping up if it weren’t for the fact that her comment is still ringing in his head. This is really not an ideal time for his brain to focus on the past, but it seems to be happening anyways. Whoops.  
  
Alexis sighs. “Alright, alright, everyone stop teasing Alistair. It’s his choice whether he wants to do it or not.” Morrigan snorts and Leliana raises an eyebrow. Alistair groans mentally. Alexis means well, but whenever she does things like that he only gets teased.  
  
Zevran however, nods along with what she said. He looks unusually serious. “We agreed on this at the beginning, no? Everyone has the right to refuse.” Leliana at least looks slightly guilty, but Morrigan doesn’t seem to react. It’s hard to tell of course since the only light source is the campfire and she’s up on the truck.  
  
Alistair sighs. “It’s fine, I’ll do it.”  
  
“You sound so tortured.” Zevran says, smiling again. Or smirking, sometimes it’s hard for Alistair to tell the difference. He’s definitely laughing at him, regardless.  
  
“That’s not…” Alistair starts, but he trails off. It’s not the game, and annoying as he is, it’s not that it’s Zevran either. It has just been a bad couple of days, and Morrigan’s comment didn’t really help. The only reason he even came at all is because Alexis has been looking forward to it. No need to ruin her birthday trip with his family drama.  
  
Alexis studies him for a second before grabbing the bottle and spinning it. “Executive decision from the birthday girl, Alistair gets a free pass.”  
  
Alistair frowns. “I’m fine Alexis.” She just waves her hand at him, making it clear she isn’t going to argue with him about it. He huffs but doesn’t push. No one seems to be laughing at him so it’s not a huge deal… and it is sort of a relief.  
  
The bottle lands on the empty space between Leliana and Zevran. Towards Morrigan. Alexis grins and stands up, quietly walking towards the truck. She jumps up onto the bed of the truck and Morrigan shrieks in surprise. They’re all grinning now, whatever remaining awkwardness from Alistair’s turn dissipated.  
  
Alexis kisses her on the cheek with a loud smacking sound and Morrigan shoves her away. She’s laughing though, even Alistair knows her well enough to tell. The two girls start to murmur and Zevran sighs. “The game is over now, isn’t it?”  
  
Leliana shrugs and Alistair nods. “Probably, it’s getting late anyways.”  
  
“It’s not that late Alistair.” Leliana says with a laugh, but she’s already cleaning up the empty beer cans around the fire. Zevran rolls his eyes but starts rolling up the sleeping bags anyways. Alistair shifts awkwardly, not finding anything to busy himself with.  
  
Leliana, bless her, asks him to put out the fire when they’re done. It means he still has to stand around waiting for them to clean up, but at least he has a task now. Leliana tends to be pretty good at sensing when he’s restless.  
  
Zevran goes to throw the sleeping bags in the tent. Alexis had somehow gotten her hands on one of those giant eight people tents and had insisted they take it along. Morrigan had wrinkled her nose but any complaints she had wilted under her girlfriend’s puppy eyes. Really, Alexis had them all suckered.  
  
Leliana returns from the campsite’s dumpster (more like a fortress in Alistair’s opinion) and heads to the truck. She jumps up onto the bed of the truck and joins the other girls in their conversation. Alistair puts out the fire, making sure to do every meticulous step the signs around camp suggest. Pour a bucket of water on the fire, mix the ashes with soil, check temperature of the coals with your hands, etc. By the time he’s done Zevran has returned and is sitting on one of the generic camp benches. Alistair goes to sit with him.  
  
“‘It’s late’ they all say, and then continue to stay up, but in the dark now. And in cliques.” Zevran says mockingly, bumping his shoulder against Alistair’s.  
  
Alistair snorts. “Well I can’t speak for the girls but I’m definitely planning on going to sleep dude. Especially since you’re all going to make me drive tomorrow.”  
  
“Fair enough. You and Leliana are probably the only ones we can trust to drive.” Zevran replies. He takes Alistair’s hand and curls their fingers together. Alistair raises an eyebrow at him, trusting Zevran’s elven eyes to be able to see him. Zevran (or his silhouette really), just shrugs. Alistair decides not to push the hand thing. Zevran could be kind of skittish about things like this, and if Alistair brings more attention to it he might stop.  
  
“You would think Alexis would be a good driver but…” Alistair wrinkles his nose, recalling the first time she’d ever driven him around. He’d almost had a heart attack.  
  
“Her road rage is something to be feared.” Zevran agrees. He leans his head against Alistair’s shoulder and they sit together for a few minutes. After a little while, Alexis herself wanders over to them. She sits down on Alistair’s other side and also decides to lean her head on his arm.  
  
“You know, if you’re both so tired you can go sleep in the tent.” Alistair says dryly. Zevran just squeezes his hand again, but Alexis laughs and curves her other arm at an awkward angle to poke him in the cheek.  
  
“I’m not that tired, you’re just comfy,” she pauses, and then continues in a more serious tone, “What’s wrong Alistair?”  
  
Before he can answer Zevran releases his hand and starts to get up. “I might go ahead and head to the tent after all.”  
  
“You sure?” Alistair asks, silently pleading that he’ll stay. Then she might just drop it.  
  
“I’m sure.” No such luck. Zevran kisses them both on the cheek and stands up. He dusts himself off and walks away.  
  
“Well, that was considerate of him.” Alexis says. Alistair fidgets slightly, not really sure what to say. “Leliana and Morrigan went to sleep earlier, we’re probably the last ones up.” She continues, rambling a bit. He hums in response. They sit together stiffly for a minute before Alexis speaks up again. “Alistair…” She sighs and grips his hand, squeezing it just like Zevran had. He wonders idly if it’s a habit they picked up the alienages.  
  
“Yes?”  
  
She huffs and butts her forehead against his shoulder. “We don’t have to talk about it. But if something’s bothering you, you can tell me. You won’t ruin my birthday or anything.” She says it patiently, but firm enough for him to know she’s serious.  
  
Alistair gives himself a minute to think about it. On one hand, she had said it was fine, and he’d been wanting to talk to someone about it ever since Teagan had contacted him the other day. On the other hand, this isn't just not being able to afford tuition or having trouble finding a job, this is... Alexis squeezes his hand again, more insistent this time. "C'mon Alistair. I dump all my shit on you all the time, let me return the favor."

"My mom's in town." He blurts out before he can convince himself not to again.

"She- what? I thought your mother was dead?" Alexis sounds just about as shocked as he was when Teagan called. She's certainly lacking her usual tact. Not that he can really blame her for that.

"Uh, yeah. Apparently not." Alistair says and then pauses. He has no idea how to have this conversation. It’s not like Alistair ever thought he would have to.

"...Mind elaborating?" Alexis says eventually, and oh, yeah, that would be a good place to start.

He sighs and nods. "Yeah, it's just... I kinda only found out a few days ago. I'm still processing too." It's probably a good thing they're still sitting in the dark; easier to hide emotions like that. Even for someone like him.

"Ah shit. I'm pressuring you again, aren't I? You really don't-"

"No, it's fine. Trust me, I've been wanting to get this off my chest for a while now." Alistair cuts her off quickly. "Teagan called me the other day. Apparently, they found another draft of my dad's will. It was more or less the same but this one had mentioned my mom." He stops to let her soak it in for a second (and to gather his own nerves but that made him sound less cool.) "She... her name's Fiona. I think she works in a Circle? I'm not sure if that's still true. Anyways, Eamon managed to find her, and she's coming into town in a few days for some kind of conference."

"Are you going to go meet her?" Alexis asks.

"I don't know."

She hums at this and lets go of his hand. Alistair can't really see but she's probably fidgeting with her engagement ring. It's a habit of hers that she does whenever she's anxious or thinking through something really hard. He's not sure which category this conversation would fall into.

"Have you talked to Eamon about it yet?" She asks, sounding a little cautious. Eamon and Isolde could be a tricky topic with him sometimes.

"He called me the next day but we didn't have much time. He said he's going to come into town to meet her. I guess even he never really knew who my mom was." Alistair isn't really sure how to feel about Eamon meeting his mother, especially without him.

Alexis leans into his side again and hums. "We should go to bed now."

"You sure?" It's kind of an abrupt end to the conversation.

She nods into his arm. "Mhm. I mean, I'll stay up and talk with you about all of this if you want, but I think you should sleep on it for now. We'll talk more about it tomorrow and maybe come up with some kind of game plan. Sound good?"

Alistair opens his mouth to respond but ends up yawning instead. She laughs at him and gets up, pulling his arm for him to follow. "You're gonna have to lead me back to the tent, I don't have night vision you know."

Alexis intertwines their fingers again. "Fine, fine, you big baby. Honestly, how humans have survived this long is beyond me."

"Hey!" They're both laughing again, slightly giddy with exhaustion.

When they get to the tent, Zevran, Leliana, and Morrigan are all already fast asleep. Zevran and Morrigan on the edges, Leliana sprawled out in the middle. Alexis shakes her awake (well, half-awake anyways) and scoots her over so they can both lie down.

"Night." Alistair whispers.

"Goodnight." She says back, leaning over Leliana to kiss him on the forehead.

"Shut up." Morrigan grumbles, making Alexis start giggling again. Zevran groans and reaches his arm behind him, slapping her on the arm. She has to smother her laughter into her sleeping bag.

Alistair falls asleep grinning like a doofus.

**Author's Note:**

> i had a lot of qualms about posting this but it was just sitting in my docs so??? idk what else to do w/ it.


End file.
